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Re: EQ : What do you do when you can't hear above a range ?

Depending on your age you aren't neccesarily supposed to hear much above 17 khz. High-pitched percussion and winds/woods have some pretty high harmonics. The last thing you want is removing these frequencies from your mix. If you can't hear them they're still being perceived by your brain, adding stereo imaging and clarity. One of the things you can do is when you want to EQ the high frequencies use a shelving EQ, so that the same amount of boost or cut is applied to the frequencies you're not hearing. You can then use the frequencies you can still hear as a reference. You could also use a frequency analyser to check out whether there are excessive high frequencies.

Re: EQ : What do you do when you can't hear above a range ?

The fundamental frequency of the highest C of a piano is 4186 Hz and most likely the fundamentals of all your notes in a typical piece of music are below that. If the song has only acoustic instruments there is only spatial information above 17 kHz and you should leave it alone. If you have a shelving eq (as Herman suggested) at, say 12 kHz adding air you don't have to worry about the part of the spectrum that you can't hear. Just let the eq lift that part with the rest of the signal.

If I remember correctly, the signal coming from a 50 Hz CRT television is about 15.6 kHz and I suppose that there are common electronic devices that produce higher noise than that. Therefore it is possible that your signal has some unwanted noise above the limit of your hearing. Remember that if you can't hear the signal coming from your DAW then you most likely can't hear it in the recording room either. Use an analyzer to check that there isn't any weird peaks at the ultra-high register. The same goes with synthetic stuff, especially with resonance filters. A synth can produce signals higher than 17 kHz and there is a theoretical chance that those signals could blow a tweeter. That's not nice if you are producing a recording that will sell millions.

The bottom line is that you should use an analyzer. If the high end seems sweet and there is no weird peaks in the part that you can't hear, then rest assured that the signal is healthy and you have done your job well.

Re: EQ : What do you do when you can't hear above a range ?

Everything going on above about 12k is very far down anyway, so I wouldn't obsess about it. Depending on the Q, you aren't going to hear a radical difference when you play around with an eq at 17k anyway.

Re: EQ : What do you do when you can't hear above a range ?

I hear the carrier tone on a tv and it drives me NUCKING FUTS!

Also keep in mind though Theo that depending on the mic/soundcard/headphones(or monitors) that you are using for the source material - those frequencies might never have been captured - so even if you are adjusting those freqs - they might not exist in the wav form to adjust.

Re: EQ : What do you do when you can't hear above a range ?

Originally Posted by Alan Lastufka

I hear the carrier tone on a tv and it drives me NUCKING FUTS!

Yeah - me too. I can even distinguish different tv's by hearing their carrier tones....My small tv has a tone that gets louder and softer every now and then, the big one has a more constant tone. For me the only way not to get nuts is not to think about it.

Re: EQ : What do you do when you can't hear above a range ?

Originally Posted by Nick Batzdorf

Everything going on above about 12k is very far down anyway, so I wouldn't obsess about it. Depending on the Q, you aren't going to hear a radical difference when you play around with an eq at 17k anyway.

Re: EQ : What do you do when you can't hear above a range ?

Thanks for the help guys and Janila for the long reply ,

i can hear the tv carrier sound as well btw and also drives me nuts ( i guess it's no big accomplishment afterall if it's just around 15khz ) . My brother just leaves the tv on all the time but presses the "soft off" button :grrrr: .